Binance Review – The Complete Review & Definitive Guide

Having quite a number of choices can confuse us. With nearly 250 cryptocurrency exchanges out there, choosing the right one for the most of our investing and trading needs is one challenging thing to do.

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange that based out of China (at the moment). The exchange does not offer fiat crypto purchases but is very popular among crypto enthusiasts for its crypto to crypto exchange service.

In this Binance review, we take you through every single detail you need to know about this altcoin exchange. We give you the reasons for why this has been the leading crypto exchange for the better part of this year.

Though the exchange was launched only a few months ago via an ICO, they have grown very well in stature and volume to compete with some of the most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges.

Let’s take a deep dive into this Binance review and see more about this crypto exchange.

All that is left is to confirm the email they send you, and once you do that, you have a basic level 1 account.

There is no need for any verification for this level 1 account. You can perform your trades normally and can withdraw up to 2BTC per day.

You can upload your photo ID and apply for level 2 verification. It might take some time for verification to complete. Once you are a verified level 2 account, you can withdraw up to 100BTC per day.

There is also a level 3 for higher limits, but you will have to contact customer support to know more about it.

How to Use Binance

Any exchange is not that easy to use when you are using it for the first time. Binance is no different. But once you spend around 5 minutes learning the interface, it becomes a piece of cake.

Binance has one of the easiest user interfaces to work with. To make things better, there are two modes to suit the experience of the trader.

Below, we detail every aspect of trading in Binance. An example trade is also performed in the advanced mode as well.

How to transfer from Coinbase to Binance

The first step in using Binance is to deposit some cryptocurrency in it.

Go to Binance and select the deposit options from the Funds menu.

Once you go the deposits page, select the cryptocurrency you want to deposit. In this example, let us deposit Basic Attention Token (BAT). We have chosen the BAT token, and we can see the receiving address for the same.

Go to the wallet where you store your cryptocurrencies and click the send option. Enter your Binance receiving address here. Make sure to double-check it and send the coins.

In the case of Coinbase, you can click the accounts tab to see your sending options.

Once you send the cryptocurrency, it will be received in your Binance wallet after the required network confirmations. In the case of BAT, it is 30 confirmations. For Bitcoin, you need 2 confirmations, for Ethereum it is 30 confirmations, and for Litecoin, it is 4 network confirmations.

Now that you have deposited some cryptocurrency in your Binance account, you can exchange them for some other cryptocurrency that is available in Binance.

How to trade on Binance

If you are not new to trading, then trading on Binance is pretty straightforward. Even if you are new to trading, you can get used to the Binance interface real quick. You have four trading pairs here namely BTC, ETH, BNB, and USDT.

For trading, there are two modes in Binance. Basic and advanced.

Basic Exchange:

The basic exchange is perfect for beginners. It gives a neat rundown of all the information you need to know. You have the order book on the left, the chart of the crypto you have selected in the middle and the favorites tab in the right.

There is also the market history tab on the right just below the favorites tab.

You can trade using the limit orders, market orders, and stop-limit orders which are below the chart.

Advanced Exchange:

As many sites have covered the trading process using the basic mode, let us show you how to make a simple trade using the advanced mode (our favorite).

Once you are in the advanced exchange mode, you can select the cryptocurrency you want to trade using the drop-down menu.

If you want to buy, you can see the market orders to the right the chart. You can enter the price at which you want to buy and also enter the number of coins you want to buy. You can also make use of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% button to use that much of the funds you have.

Once you are sure of it, click the buy button.

You can now see your order in the open orders sections just below the chart. Once the order has cleared, you will you no longer see any open orders. You can check the balance of the coin you just purchased by looking at the sell tab. It will now display how many coins you can sell, thereby confirming the trade.

This is the simplest way of performing a trade using the advanced mode.

There are different ways to set up the orders.

Limit orders:

A limit order is the one we just showed you. It is the simplest you to ensure that you are getting what you want. You enter the price you want to buy or sell. This way, you will not pay anything extra to what you want to pay.

Market orders:

A marker order is where you will buy or sell at the market price. Here you will not be able to pick a price as it will be the market price. You can only enter the number of coins you want to purchase.

Once you hit buy or sell, the order will be executed immediately at the market price.

Stop-limit orders:

Stop-limit orders are slightly more advanced and need a little bit of understanding to execute one properly.

A stop-limit can be used to initiate an action once a trigger happens.

For example, let’s say we are in a bear market.

You are planning to minimize your losses. So you will set up a stop-limit order like this: Sell 2BTC at $9500 when the price drops to $9550.

So when the price drops to $9550, a sell order to sell 2BTC at $9500 will be initiated. When the price further drops to $9500, the order is executed.

When the price is falling from $9600 to $9000, you can minimize your losses by selling at $9500 which a decent price.

Supported Cryptocurrencies on Binance

Binance has one of the largest collections when it comes to altcoins. There are more than 120 coins listed on Binance, and the number is only increasing. With 4 pairings (BTC, ETH, BNB, USDT) available, Binance gives a lot of options when it comes to trading.

Some of the notable cryptos that are listed on Binance are:

Bitcoin (BTC)

Ethereum (ETH)

NEO (NEO)

Cardano (ADA)

EOS (EOS)

Ripple (XRP)

NANO (NANO)

TRON (TRX)

Litecoin (LTC)

and more…

How to Withdraw from Binance

So you have completed your first trade on Binance, and you want to withdraw it to somewhere safer.

The withdrawal process is very much like the deposit process.

You have to go to the withdrawal page and select the coin you would like to withdraw. Enter the receiving address and double check it before you hit send.

Note that there is a minimum amount for withdrawal and this varies for every cryptocurrency.

For example, the minimum BTC you can withdraw is 0.002, and the minimum ADA you can withdraw is 4. This number is different for each crypto.

This is also a varying withdrawal fee. This is a flat fee and not a percentage of the coins withdrawn.

Also, note that the withdrawal limit applies here. You can only withdraw as much as your account level allows. For higher withdrawal amounts, complete the verifications as required.

Binance Fees and Limits

Binance is one of the very few exchanges that have a low fee for trading.

The exchange charges a fee of 0.1% on all trades. There are very few exchanges that compare with this kind of a fee.

Binance gives you an option to reduce this fee to 0.05%. You can use the native cryptocurrency of Binance (BNB) to get this 50% discount on the fee. You can turn this setting ‘on’ in the user center.

This is a nice way to promote the usage of their crypto and also works in favor of traders as well.

The discount that BNB offers will, however, go down in the coming years. See the table below for more detail.

Binance Competitions

Binance conducts competitions to promote the trading of cryptocurrencies.

They have conducted these competitions for Tron, Waves and more cryptos as well.

The Tron competition has prizes like a Maserati car, a Mercedes Benz car, a MacBook Pro and also an iPhone X. The Waves competition gave away 20,000 Waves to the users who traded the most volume of the cryptocurrency.

Currently, there is a NANO competition going on in Binance.

According to Binance, those who have traded the most NANO between a specific time period will be considered for the prize. The 1st place will get 6000 NANO, the 2nd place will get 4000 NANO, and the third place will get 2000 NANO.

These kinds of competitions promote the trading of the cryptocurrencies and some even increase the price of the same. Traders enjoy these as they could get some easy wins during these times.

Is Binance Safe?

How safe is Binance?

This is one question that many people ask when they hear of Binance for the first time. And, as you are putting your hard-earned money, you should ask that about all the exchanges including Binance.

Binance is easily one of the most secure exchanges right now in the cryptosphere.

Even though it is only a few months since Binance came out of its ICO, it has grown to get a lot of attention. This will also get the attention of phishers and hackers as well.

Binance does not provide any detail on how they store the funds. We are aware that they use a cold wallet which pretty much every exchange does.

Binance also provides two-factor authentication for all their applications. This prevents attackers from accessing the user funds without getting a second step approval from the user.

The Hacking Attempt and How Binance Restored Confidence

Hackers were collecting user data from Jan 2018 using phishing attempts. Sites that looked like Binance were used, and so many people gave their credentials assuming it was Binance.

The hackers that created API calls using this information. They didn’t use it immediately and waited for March 6 to attempt a hack.

Using the API keys, they made market buys for VIA/BTC resulting in the increase of the price of VIA. Then they went on to sell the VIA to BTC at high price points. They used 31 accounts to sell all the VIA and withdrawals were also initiated in these accounts.

However, Binance’s risk management caught this and temporarily disabled withdrawals. None of the hacker’s withdrawals were successful. Also, the VIA coins that the hackers initially deposited before the hack were also frozen.

After a complete security audit, Binance then resumed withdrawals. No user funds were lost in the process which is a testament to Binance’s security.

Binance also announced a bounty of $250,000 to catch the hackers.

The way Binance reacted to this hacking attempt is widely appreciated by the crypto community.

Several other exchanges have fallen prey to hacking, but Binance managed not only to save the user funds but also caught the hackers’ deposits which they donated to charity.

Binance Mobile Applications

Binance has apps for both Android and iOS. This is in addition to the Windows and MacOS apps they provide.

These mobile apps are polished and make trading on the go very easy.

There are five tabs on the bottom namely Home, Markets, Trade, Funds, and Account.

The home tab is the first page you are going to see once you log in. You get a good gist of what’s happening on Binance on the homepage of the applications.

The markets tab gives you the prices for all the coins in their respective pairings. There is also a favorites item which displays the prices of coins you have starred.

The trade tab is where you perform the trade. You can select the crypto pairing from the top and buy or sell with a lot of ease.

The funds tab shows you the account balance and lists the coins and their respective balances. There are options to both deposit and withdraw your crypto funds.

The accounts tab gives you an overview of your account settings. Here you can beef up the security of the app by turning on a secondary lock like touch ID or normal pattern. This helps to keep the app even more secure.

Is Binance a good wallet?

Binance is a very secure exchange. But we are not sure about its purpose as a wallet. The more popular it becomes, the more eyes that will fall on it.

So the chances of getting hacked will only get stronger for an exchange like this as time goes by.

Though Binance has superior security in place, if you have cryptocurrencies that you won’t trade often, we suggest you move them to a safe wallet.

Here are some wallets for safe storage of your cryptos.

Ledger Nano S

The best hardware wallet on the market. It can store a number of cryptocurrencies and is very safe. If you have a substantial amount of money invested in cryptocurrencies, it is highly recommended that you get one.

Enjin Wallet

The best mobile wallet for storing Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20 tokens and Litecoins. It comes with excellent security features built-in. If you lose your phone, you can effortlessly import your wallet by entering the seed words given to your during the setup process.

Neon Wallet

If you are a fan of NEO, then you need a separate wallet for storing the coins in their ecosystems. The neon wallet is approved by the NEO team, and it can store all the NEP-5 tokens as well. This is a desktop wallet so be sure to learn how to restore it if anything goes haywire.

Binance Customer Support

For any exchange to be successful, there has to be good customer support.

Binance is not an exception to this rule.

Since its inception, Binance has grown by leaps and tides to become one of the largest and best cryptocurrency exchanges on the market. They have shown a bit of lag when it comes to expanding the team of customer support staff.

But this is not to say they lack in support. Binance comes with excellent support. At the moment, they do not have phone support, but you can raise a ticket, and they will get back to your ticket within 24 hours. In most of the cases, they have reached out to tickets in less than a few hours which is brilliant.

In addition to the usual support, there is also a very detailed FAQ page.

If you can go through this FAQ page once, you will not need to raise a support ticket in most cases.

So far in our experience, the customer service has been very prompt in dealing with us. If you can give some basic information like wallet address, time of the transaction, and some other stuff, they can solve the issue quickly for you.

Latest News regarding Binance (updated)

Binance is always in the center of news, mostly for good reasons.

The most recent news regarding this crypto exchange is that they might be moving to Malta.

Binance is currently operating in Japan, and there was some news that they were not following regulations of Japan.

The CEO of the exchange came clean that they have been looking for some candidates and have finalized Malta for their operations.

The Prime Minister of Malta also posted a tweet welcoming Binance to their country.

Binance has primarily been a crypto to crypto exchange so far. The move to Malta could mean that Binance can finally introduce fiat pairings inside the exchange.

This means you might be able to purchase Bitcoins and Ethereums directly with Euros.

DEX incoming

On March 13, 2018, Binance announced that they would be launching a decentralized exchange. They mentioned that both the centralized and decentralized exchanges would work together.

They will be launching their own blockchain which they have christened as the ‘Binance Chain.’

The main reason for this new decentralized exchange is to improve the performance, ease of use and liquidity. BNB token will become the native token of the decentralized exchange and will be used to pay the fees in the exchange.

Binance Review – Our Verdict

Binance has grown many folds in the last few months. Despite the growing traffic, it has maintained the same quality and has given the same seamless user experience. It also offers support in 7 languages which is very useful.

Though you can reach the customer service only through a ticket system, they have been pretty quick at addressing issues.

Moreover, this is currently the exchange with the highest cryptocurrency volume which is great news for day traders.

At the moment, Binance is easily the best cryptocurrency exchange available for traders and investors alike. Open an account as we don’t know when they will close sign-ups for new accounts.

Binance Exchange: Bitcoin and Altcoin Exchange

Ease of Use

Reliability

Security

Customer Service

Mobile Apps

Summary

Binance gives a seamless user experience that is coupled with excellent security. You can use the exchange in 7 languages which is great. Mobile applications are also pretty good. Easily the best cryptocurrency exchange out there. Check out Binance.